This Is War
by PinkRangerV
Summary: In a world that has ended, you are always faced with the choice: Rebuild the old? Or accept the new? Crossover MMPR\RPM. TK. AU.
1. Survival

A\N: GreenGallant and I are having a bit of a challenge to see who can get more reviews for fics. For his version of this story (using Turbo instead of MMPR), go to his profile and see if he uploaded it. Oh, and review! Please! I want to _win_! :p (And for those of you asking how I'm getting on FFN right now...well, ask me no questions and I'll tell you no stories of highly illegal activities involving supersecret spying.)

* * *

When in battle, one might have preferred to look at a flower.

It was a beautiful one. A little rosebush, with a single red bud on its green branches. It was too sick to produce anything else, but to Tommy Oliver, that single, blush-pink rosebud, delicate and trembling in the cool fall wind, was the most precious thing left on this Earth.

Mainly because at the moment the world was in nuclear autumn and a Grinder was battling a vicious sabertooth tiger.

Tommy sighed, staring at his flower. He was sitting curled up on a rock, his hand idly playing with the scar on his face. He hated that scar, hated this whole world, but when he looked at the rosebud, he could almost block it out. And that was a good thing.

Right?

The Grinder screamed, then was flung on top of the rose.

Tommy blinked.

The Grinder sparked and died, one of the sparks falling to the desert floor next to the sabertooth, who shied away. She realized what she'd done and shook her great head in irritation before transforming back into a tall, beautiful Asian woman. "Damnit." Trini muttered. "Hate picking up the instincts."

Tommy stared.

Then, angrily, he shot to his feet, stomping away.

Trini just sighed.

It was the year 2017, and the world had ended. And the Rangers had ended as well.

Most were dead. Venjix had captured Andros' entire team and 'modified' them, only for them to fall apart, literally, on the battlefield. Others had simply just...not been strong enough. The few teams who _did_ remain were leading, or hiding in, groups of survivors, just praying for another day.

Only the first team was strong enough to stay intact.

Of course, Trini mused as she began to follow Tommy, 'intact' was a relative word these days. Especially in the case of Tommy Oliver.

He was a good leader. Trini acknowledged that. Even Jason could never have pulled off the feats of heroism and spectacular stupidity required to gain the loyalty of their slightly retarded group of survivors. (_You'd think surviving the apocalypse would make them _smarter, Trini's inner voice snarked, _but nooo...they _still_ just want to pull out their Blackberries and set Facebook to Not Affected By Apocalypse..._)

But for all his facades, Tommy was still damaged.

Trini didn't know the details. She'd been too busy singlehandedly blackmailing, bribing, and keeping peace in the group of survivors that she, Jason, and Kim had found, not to mention trying to find somewhere to take the damn morons. But she knew Tommy and Zack had been captured.

The Dino Rangers had been tortured to death in front of them.

Zack, surprisingly, had handled it better than Tommy had. He was disabled from the tortures-his right leg was a mess of scarring that no healing spell could ever fix-but he was happy enough now, guarding the children and elderly, teaching and entertaining all of them. Slowly, but surely, his spirit was coming back.

Tommy, though, hid.

He locked the pain away, somewhere inside of him, and played the White Knight by day, the heroic leader that even Jason admired. But as soon as he was alone, the bizarre thinking of someone broken by a war showed.

He never lashed out at Kimberly. Trini, therefore, had bluntly told her sister in arms that Tommy was not her problem, since Trini's problems involved playing guardian and therapist to an entire group of survivors and _if she had to do one more thing she was going to kill someone, got it_? Kim, who was currently the group's peacekeeper, had just shrugged and agreed. But they all knew Tommy was broken.

Except, of course, for the man himself.

Tommy stopped at the final marking point. He and Trini had been on patrol when they'd come across the lone Grinder, and the final marking point was the most beautiful. Well, it was Nevada, Trini thought wryly, it was _always_ beautiful, a stunning mountain range with forests, lakes, and barren ground, but she'd organized the patrol route to leave a bit of reward for finishing, just in case she ever had to make one of the civilians do it.

Of course, the view was slightly wrecked by a brooding Tommy.

"Talk." Trini ordered.

Tommy blinked in confusion.

"You. Talk to me. Now." Trini said, then frowned and moved her mouth. "Damn tiger form." It always left her wanting to eat rabbits, too. Which was fine, since they _did_ eat rabbits now, but _raw_ rabbit and _cooked_ rabbit were two entirely different things.

Tommy sighed and stared down at the valley below them.

"I can't help if you don't let me in." Trini said, for possibly the billionth time.

_Literally_ the billionth.

Tommy sighed again, wrestling with himself. Trini waited. He always won this battle, it was just a matter of letting him do so on his own.

"I miss Dylan."

Oh.

Well, at least it wasn't the Dino Thunders dying again, Trini thought with not quite as much guilt as she probably should have felt for thinking that. "Dylan...Kat's kid?"

"My kid." Obviously. Kim was still slightly miffed over that. She'd adored the twins, though. Dylan was a brooding Tommy clone, and Tanya was an _Invader Zim_ freak who loved explosives, so it was probably natural that Kim would adore the only two kids on Earth to _not_ somehow manage to be cute.

Trini reached out and put her hand on Tommy's shoulder. As much as they'd all liked Tommy's kids, both the Rangers and biological ones, Dylan and Tanya had died with Kat, fighting for what they believed in.

"Does it get better, Tri?" Tommy asked.

Trini sighed. A memory of her own flashed into her mind-her daughter Katylyn's mangled body, dead at age four, killed by crossing the street. "Yeah." Trini said quietly. "It does."

"He was a _cop_." Tommy said, a vain protest against Death. "And Tanya shouldn't have even _been_ there, she was a _hippie_ for God's sake..."

"She was a Wiccan who took an oath to preserve life. And Dylan took an oath that was pretty damn close." Trini reminded him. "They were both warriors, and they both died with honor."

Tommy's rage flashed up again, and he knocked Trini's hand from his shoulder, turning away. "Yeah, Tri. _That_ helps. Just _so_ much."

Trini rolled her eyes.

A shadow passed over Tommy's face. "Sorry." He said. "I'm...I'm sorry. I just...I'm sorry."

Trini put her arm around him. Tommy was tactile, after all, a man who communicated through touch, and it did seem to help him to be physically near. "It'll be okay, Tom." Trini said. "Trust me."

Tommy looked at the settlement below, the tents pitched at random around a mountain lake.

"Yeah." He said quietly. "Yeah. It will be."

*MMPR*RPM*MMPR*RPM*

Kimberly couldn't sleep.

It wasn't for any particular reason, her brain just didn't want to turn off. It wasn't even that annoying, honestly. Kim smiled at her unconscious husband beside her, snoring away and drooling on the pillow like a baby. No, she decided as she gently brushed her fingers through his hair, it wasn't annoying at all.

She loved Tommy. No-not just loved. Every single atom of her being was impossibly devoted to him. Which, honestly, made sense. Kim was one of the Daemon people, Maligore's Heir. Not that anyone really cared. It had been a bit of a mess just after they'd escaped the island-she and Jason had been kidnapped by Zedd, who had thought the Rangers were trying to hold them hostage for some reason-but they'd gotten it sorted out that a) Jason and Kim's newfound genetic changes were a result of highly illegal spellwork, b) Maligore was in posthumous disgrace for that, and c) Jason and Kim, being more than ready to murder anyone who tried to annoy them, were to be left well alone.

But as a Daemon, Kim formed deep bonds. That was how Trini had explained it, anyway, and Trini was the best healer Kim had ever met.

So when Kim said she loved her husband, she meant it.

However, Kim decided as he snored again, even the most devoted wife could get _very_ tired of that sound. She leaned down and kissed Tommy's forehead, then slipped out of bed and into a robe.

The advantage of living in a tent was that you only had to step outside to look at the stars, but Kim walked all the way out to the far ridge, high above the camp. After all, she wasn't so much looking at the stars as avoiding them.

The forest lent a quiet, subtle hum of power to the air around her. Kim smiled. She and the others were far too sensitive to the Power now, and even magic, in her opinion. She preferred the days of morphing and beating up bad guys. Where had those days _gone_?

_Blown away on the nuclear wind..._

Kimberly smiled at her own joke as she reached the ridgetop. Nukes? As if. Venjix hadn't even bothered, the EMP would have stopped him cold. But he'd put a poison in the air. Kimberly frowned at that thought. It hadn't gotten here yet, by a miracle and a half, but when it did...

Well, it was a problem for the future. Maybe she'd bring it up tomorrow. Jason and Billy could come up with a solution. It would definitely get Billy away from the giant-robot idea. Kimberly shook her head. She loved Billy like a brother, but damn was he an idiot sometimes.

Kim reached the top of the ridge and sat atop a rock, looking down.

Not a beautiful view, in her opinion, just a lot of mountaintops. But then, she and Trini had never seen eye-to-eye on that. Or _any_ art, for that matter. Kimberly snorted. Yeah, she remembered _that_ high-school field trip. The two friends hadn't spoken for days after that little debacle.

Tommy slipped up to the ridgetop.

Kim gazed up at the sky. The view wasn't the best from here, it was better at the lake, but she liked it anyway. It was like a curtain over the world.

Tommy slipped his arms around her waist.

"It's like a curtain, you know. The sky." Kimberly said, relaxing into his body.

"Really?" Tommy asked, frowning at it. "Oh. Yeah. I guess it is."

Kimberly chuckled.

Tommy slid onto the rock behind her, holding her. They'd been married four years now, and had no real reason to need words. They just stayed together, linked in body and spirit.

Kimberly's eyes drifted shut.

They slept together under the stars, in a pure, perfect moment of tranquil sorrow. An observer, placed near the couple, would find it heartbreaking.

And then, somewhere in her dream, Kimberly heard explosions.

She frowned, but just turned and hugged Tommy closer. Whatever K-Mart was blowing up this time, it could wait until morning. The girl was wonderful company, and invaluable to Kim's police force, but she still had an obsession with explosives.

Then something cold pressed into her skull.

She leaped out of the dream and into reality. Somewhere in the single, fragile instant between waking and dying, she saw the entire scene perfectly. The smoke rising from the camp, the tranquil night shattered by Grinders, monsters, and bombers, and the Grinder aiming a blaster at her as she leapt out of Tommy's arms.

And then the pain shattered her into a million pieces.


	2. Death

A\N: Okay...for anyone who's got me on author alert, sorry about the X-Men thing, found it and wanted to post. And to my reviewers-thank you! Keep 'em coming-let's see if we can win this! :) (And if you look up It Was His Sled on TVTropes, you may get a laugh out of it...or, if you look at Trini's daughter, two...)

* * *

Tommy slowly floated up into reality.

For a moment, the briefest place between waking and dreaming, he thought Kim was in his arms and they had fallen asleep watching the stars. Just for a moment.

And then he awoke.

The first thing he saw was blood. The next thing he saw was Kimberly, laying in his arms, missing half of her leg. Tommy instantly shifted her to the ground, gently touching the stump.

It wasn't bleeding.

"No." The word was nearly torn from Tommy's throat, a harsh protest. "_No_." He reached out, the Power touching another Power. "_NO_!"

The scream echoed around the lake.

Tommy turned his head sharply. Four and a half years of Venjix's rule had taught him that when there was noise, Grinders followed; he couldn't help being startled by his own scream.

And then he saw the camp.

Slowly he rose.

Someone else was walking, Tommy realized as he slowly made his way down to the lake. He couldn't be. He _wouldn't_ be. But then, somehow, all too quickly, there he was, among the ashes and torn tents, the spilled items and the dead bodies.

No one had been left alive.

There was Fran, dead in Dom's arms; the two had been associated with Jungle Fury, which wasn't a Ranger team but had used the technology anyway, Tommy's mind remembered. There was Steve and Adam, a different Adam than Tommy's, both lovers with gaping holes in their brains. There were the aliens and magical peoples, formed into a defensive line. They had given their lives shielding a group of small children, two women even shielding them with their own bodies.

The children were dead anyway.

Tommy slowly walked among the dead. These were his people. His friends, his family, his everything. He had given everything he could to them, and they had loved him in return. They had built a world together, a safe paradise on a mountaintop.

They were blown away as ash on the wind.

Tommy stopped suddenly, then frowned. Why had he...

No.

_No_.

There, in front of him, was his team.

Dead.

Trini's head was cut in half. Tommy wondered, in some morbid part of his mind, if Katylyn would recognize her in Heaven with only half a head. A man beside her, reaching for her in the ash, was missing his entire face. His red clothes and Power Morpher meant he was Jason. Billy had been midway morphed before he had been sliced in half. Zack's arm was broken so far the bone was sticking out, and his head was at the wrong angle, dead, glazed eyes staring into nothingness.

They lay among the blood and ash in their final resting place.

The sun was staring down at them, and the mountains rose beautifully around the site of the massacre, and Tommy suddenly wanted to scream aloud but he was frozen, locked away inside of himself, unable to speak or think anything but _I could have saved them I should have saved them I could have saved them..._

Something dinged.

Not dinged. It was the noise of crystal hitting crystal, and wasn't even a _noise_-it was the color pink.

Kimberly.

Tommy wasn't aware of running, because he didn't run. He flew. Simply flew over to Kimberly, who was still laying in her own blood, but had...had somehow managed to _sit up_ and her eyes were _open_ and somewhere Tommy registered that he was clinging to her and sobbing.

Kimberly just stared off into space.

Finally Tommy let go. "They're dead." He whispered, his voice harsh from sobs. "They're...our team. They're dead."

"I know." Kimberly whispered, her voice just as broken. "I felt Jared die."

Jared. That had been Jason's chosen name. Some Daemon ritual. Kimberly's had been Kata, Tommy remembered faintly, and Kim and Jase had been good about never using telepathy, but Kata and Jared _always_ did and she had _felt Jason die_...

"Tommy."

He blinked at his wife.

"We have to..." Kim paused, blinking herself. Her thoughts, always ready, always telling her _in a crisis, just do whatever you have to do_, were failing. "We..." She paused again. An emotion crossed her face for the first time.

Horror.

"What do we _do_?" She whispered.

Tommy just stared back.

Perhaps they would have stayed that way forever, just two more survivors of Venjix paralyzed by fear and trauma, if Tommy hadn't felt the sun heat his back and moved slightly, reflexively, to keep from getting sunburnt.

But he did. And when he glanced down at her leg, the answer appeared in a spurting fit of nonsense that restructured itself.

"We have to find another camp. Fix your leg."

Kim slowly nodded. "Where?"

"I...I don't know." Tommy said slowly. "Jase..."

Kim shut her eyes in pain.

Tommy reached out and picked her up. Silently he carried her down to the tent Jason and Trini had shared, simply stepping over the bodies. Jason always kept the maps and instruments he and Billy used to predict the fallout levels in a little case on the floor. It was still there. Tommy set Kimberly down on the table, then pulled the case out and studied the maps.

Jason had written in red all over them. Things like _possibly here, no radio waves_; _settlement here, hostile; Mystic Force here; _and, weirdest, _Corinth City!_

"What's 'Corinth City'?" Tommy asked, frowning.

Kim frowned as well. "Corinth? It's a radio transmission we picked up a while back. I looked it up, and it was a science project. You know Lake Tahoe? Out where Ryan and Dana lived?"

"Yeah, they kept sending us postcards. Some kind of perfect ecosystem." Tommy said.

"Not perfect ecosystem. It was a natural self-contained water cycle." Kim corrected. "So some scientists in Greenland decided to take it to a new level and create a whole new ecosystem..." She grinned. "Under a dome full of lead-lined concrete, because some unsung genius realized that humanity would need it."

Tommy gaped.

"It's _huge_. Big enough for thousands. Even right now, they're probably not at maximum capacity, and everyone was heading north when Venjix attacked." Kim said with a smug grin.

"They'd have a hospital." Tommy said, studying the map again. "It's too far, though. There's an ocean in the way."

"New York." Kim said, pointing at the map. "We can cross there. I know there's a settlement there, we've talked a few times."

"Oh, those were the guys Jase called douches?"

"Yeah, they still think we're just a publicity stunt. But they've got boats running to Greenland. And if there's boats, there's probably guides."

"So we get to New York." Tommy said, then glanced at Kim's leg. "First, though, we've got to get you stable."

Kim smiled, reaching out and pulling Tommy into her arms. "Okay, Handsome." She whispered. "Let's go to Corinth."


	3. Surprise

A\N: Oops. I thought I'd updated this! Sorry, guys. *grins sheepishly* Also: If you can figure out what the horn is playing, you win an internet cookie! :)

* * *

They'd left hoping for a new life.

Corinth was the miracle city. Food and water were abundant there. They had clean clothes, they had TV, they had computers and internet and fast food.

But when Tommy woke the next morning, neither he or Kim had said a single word.

So the days fell into some sort of pattern.

They would wake. They would get up, clean as best they could. Tommy would heft Kim on his back, and they would walk. Then, when the sun was long gone and Kimberly was asleep on Tommy's shoulders, they would stop, roll out the two blankets they still had on the ground, eat whatever they'd rationed out, and then fall asleep in each other's arms.

The world blurred into it. Rise, walk, stop, rest. No thought. No emotion. Simple movement was the only thing either of them felt. It was almost as if, Tommy thought in a slow, vague way that seemed to transcend the time he thought it and be above the Universe itself, some force that they had never met and could never see were propelling them forward, like pawns in a chess game with no notion of who moved them or why, only that they must, always, move.

And then something changed.

Tommy wasn't aware of what, or why, but he stopped, and Kim's head lifted. Slowly the world came back into focus as Tommy floated into himself, returning from whatever distant place he'd been.

They were in front of a sign.

Tommy frowned, tilting his head at it. His eyes were blurry. How long had it been since he'd blinked? The sign was blue and had white letters and...

_Welcome To Carson City, Nevada! Enjoy Your Stay!_

...Carson?

Wait, they weren't near Carson. Carson should be _behind_ them. Right?

Tommy silently shifted Kim, moving so she could climb down off his back. The air felt cold against Tommy's skin. Nuclear autumn again, he thought, then a second thought said, wait, are those clouds radioactive? He turned to ask Billy...

Oh. Right.

Kim was already looking at the map. Tommy sat beside her, staring at it.

They were quiet for another minute.

From what Tommy saw, Jason apparently had gone blind at some point and everyone had missed it. That, or their camp had covered half of their mountains and ended somewhere in the middle of Lake Tahoe.

Tommy was gonna kill him. Even if he was dead. Tommy would resurrect the bastard and kill him again. Painfully.

"_Shit_!"

Tommy nearly jumped out of his skin.

Kim sighed viciously and began rummaging through her backpack. The precious food and water were tossed out like they were worthless, and Kim tried to heft herself to her knees before hitting her stump on the ground and hissing in agony.

Tommy reached out, taking her into his arms.

"There's other maps." Kim said. "He was trying to do it like a hologram, you zoom in when..."

And suddenly she began to cry.

Tommy just held her. Her tears fell on his shirt, getting his shoulder wet.

He couldn't really care.

Slowly Kimberly's tears drained away. She lay against Tommy's chest, listening to his heartbeat as the world fell back into place. She could see the desert around her again, the overcast clouds that Tommy always mistook for nuclear autumn. She could feel the wind around her, cold and frozen. She could feel thirst, hunger, the pain from her leg, and as the last one hit her she nearly gasped.

Tommy carefully moved away from her.

Silently he pulled out the bandages and began dressing the stump again. Kimberly looked away as he did. She couldn't stand the sight of blood, it disgusted her.

But then she glanced back.

Tommy's eyes were...dead. It was the best way to describe it. Kimberly knew hers had been ten minutes ago, but she still reached out, her fingertips brushing her husband's cheek.

Tommy ignored it.

He finished wrapping her wound, then mechanically began to pack the things Kimberly had tossed away in her quest for the other maps.

"Tommy?" Kimberly said, her voice coming out far more small and scared than she ever wanted it to. She reached out, grabbing her husband's wrist. "Tommy. It's me. Your Beautiful. Look at me. Please."

He did.

His eyes were like looking into a living corpse's. Kimberly flinched, turning her face away.

Something reached out.

There was no emotion, but Tommy pulled Kimberly into his arms, stroking her hair absently. A blessing, Kimberly thought wildly, from wherever he was...she nearly laughed at that, hysterical, before sobering, the sorrow and pain catching up with her.

Tommy was gone. And he might never come back.

"_WE! DIG! GIANT ROBOTS!_"

Kimberly and Tommy both nearly jumped out of their skins, and then both stared.

A van was coming. Or rather, not a van, but a _monstrosity_-hideously painted, covered in bumper stickers, and playing a theme song from an old cartoon for the horn.

It stopped beside them.

"Hey, guys!" The driver said, jumping out. He looked, Kimberly thought from somewhere in her shock, exactly like the type of guy who would have been a surfer a while back. He knelt next to Kimberly, checking her leg expertly. "Ooh, ouch. That sucks."

An African girl with a gun in her hand followed a bit more calmly. "Brad, _calm_." She ordered, glancing at Tommy and Kim. "Anyone follow you two?"

"...Um." Kimberly said, finding her voice somewhere in the surprise. "No." She paused. "I think."

"Good." The girl said, pulling out a scanner. "Move over, Brad."

The boy jumped up, watching as the girl scanned both of them. "They're clean. Let's go." The girl said, gazing out at the landscape with the eye of a hardened soldier.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that." Brad apologized, hefting Kim onto his back. "Allison's got some issues."

"And I _really_ wanted total strangers knowing that." Allison snapped back, rolling her eyes. "Just get 'em in the damn truck and wake Emily up already."

Kimberly just stared.

Brad set her carefully down in what looked like a cross between the Command Center and a room full of pillows, then turned to a girl sleeping quietly in a corner. "Yo! Em! Up and at 'em!"

Emily blinked and yawned. "Sup?" She asked sleepily. "Where are we? Oh." She glanced at Kimberly, shyly, then saw her leg. "You're hurt."

"Um." Kimberly said. Managing more would require a mental balance she didn't quite have at the moment.

Tommy clambered into the van, helped by Allison, who also threw Kimberly's pack in a bit roughly. "Okay, let's go. Em can explain while we drive."

As the van doors closed and they rattled off, Kimberly had the distinct feeling someone was laughing at her.


	4. Abakabula!

A\N: BWAHAHA! (And let me know if this sucks or not, I'm writing at nine PM and not quite sure whether it's in any way as dark as I mean the story to be later...)

* * *

"We were friends, before."

Emily spoke as she expertly put a paste of ground herbs on Kimberly's leg. "The three of us." Emily clarified. "Me, All, and Brad."

Brad waved from the front seat.

"We..." Emily frowned, then laughed, a small, bitter sound. "Doesn't matter. It doesn't...not really. We just...we were Outcasts. No one liked us."

"We didn't like them, either." Allison agreed with a growl.

"So we liked the apocalypse." Emily said. She smiled to herself as she began to expertly wrap Kimberly's wound. "I did, anyway. It's beautiful, did you ever notice?"

"Um...not really." Kimberly said, shooting Allison a look that quite clearly said _get me away from the crazy person_.

Allison smiled like a shark-with a lot of quite malicious teeth. "Em likes the dead things."

"If no one's looking, it's more beautiful." Emily explained, calmly putting away her medicines, Kimberly's leg neatly wrapped. She turned to Tommy. "Now, _people_, on the other hand..." She knelt in front of Kimberly's silent husband, and then-

Kimberly frowned.

There were no words for what Emily was doing. But somehow, in a way Kimberly could just sense, Emily was almost _resonating_ with Tommy.

"Venjix caught her."

Kimberly turned her head. Allison was watching Emily, a protective, mothering look on her face. "Brad, he started writing an antivirus for Venjix, so Venjix kept him alive for information. Me? I went nuts on Grinders. Venjix..." Allison chuckled darkly, looking at her hand. "_Improved_ me." Her gaze went up to Emily again. "But Em? She went and started mapping a route. Kept a group of, oh, fifty or so alive while they got to New York. Then she went back and did it again. And again, and again."

Kimberly stared in awe.

"She doesn't get it." Brad said quietly. A shadow lay on his face as he glared at the road. "Her damn parents treated her like shit. So she has no fucking clue she's a hero. But she is."

Emily stopped resonating with what, to Kimberly, seemed like a _click!_ of sound.

"He's not coming back."

Kimberly's head jolted up.

Emily threw up her hands. "Not-not like that! He's not _dead_. He's just...safe. Off in his mind. And he really, really doesn't feel like coming out again." Emily made a face. "His mind is...eech. Gross. Metal and blood." She frowned. "And something called the Machine Empire and General Venjix..."

"Great. Another one." Allison said dryly.

Emily snorted. "Don't complain, they're the easy ones." She told her friend. "Now, the fundies, _those_ are fun. They think they're in charge, and if you don't do _exactly_ what they say and get them their coffee _right then_ they'll pull out their gun and start yapping about being American citizens." Emily shook her head, wincing as the van hit something.

"Em, turn on the defenses." Brad ordered.

Emily turned to the consoles, beginning to type.

"What are you doing?"

"Turning us into a tank."

"Oh. You know, it's funny, but I used to be under the impression that the world was sane."

"I _hate_ that. The world's so much better when it's crazy."

"You know, you would make a _very_ good Pink Ranger."

"Thank you."

"Why do we _always_ get the weird ones?" Allison demanded of the ceiling.

"_We're_ weird, All." Emily replied, still typing. "Anyway, Kim, you wanted to know about how we met. We all got caught by Venjix, but he put us all in the same cell."

"And that was the last mistake he ever made." Brad finished, grim satisfaction on his face. "Well, sort of."

Kimberly raised an eyebrow.

"You know how when you get really busy you can hook two computer monitors together?" Brad asked. "Dual-screen? Yeah, well, we blew up Venjix's camp. But we didn't blow up Venjix."

"Mainly because that's a crappy analogy, and a better one would be Gynock." Emily muttered irritably.

"Yeah, but punk, most people haven't seen Megas XLR." Brad said with a gentle smile. "Though I have to admit, the theme makes a _great_ car horn."

Emily grinned mischievously. "Thank you." Then she frowned. "Um, Brad?"

"Yeah, punk?"

"Remember that lunatic guy we met? Carl?"

"Carlos?" Brad asked. Emily nodded.

Allison snarled wordlessly.

"Um...he was actually totally crazy, right? It wasn't just one of those fun hallucinogenics?" Emily added, looking decidedly more nervous than usual.

"Yeah." Allison said, cocking her gun. "Do I get to blow his balls off?"

"By tonight? Depends." Emily said. "Do you think you can hit a target that small?"

The laughter that followed was not nice.

Kimberly considered, then grinned viciously.

It was always fun to kick some ass.


	5. Black and White

A\N: Holy. Freaking. Cow. Finals took _forever_. On the other hand, I have now officially graduated from high school. So, here's a graduation present from me to you-an update! Enjoy!

* * *

Tommy hadn't woken up by nightfall.

Kim took a long, sad look at him as she cocked her rifle. The plan was simple; go to Carlos' camp, create large explosions to scatter his followers, and then snipe Carlos himself.

Kim was all for it. Apparently the man was some kind of religious nut. The trio of Allison, Brad, and Emily had run into him in a Venjix camp; he'd been trying to kill people under the name of God. One of his victims had been Emily, so the trio wanted Carlos dead.

Some part of Kim was whispering that this was a really, really bad idea.

But the rest of her just said that she wanted to kill something.

"Hey, Kim, you ready?" Allison asked, poking her head into the van.

Kim nodded.

Allison glanced at Tommy.

"He doesn't like it here." Kim said. "It scares him a bit."

Allison chuckled. "He'll get over it. Come on. Let's go kick some ass."

Kim grinned and grabbed her crutches.

Time to fight.

*RPM*MMPR*RPM*

_Tommy was in a garden._

_It was nice there. Peaceful. Quiet. It felt very safe there, as if the world were waiting for him, and he loved it._

_He glanced back._

_Kim and the trio of newcomers were in a van, somewhere, talking. Tommy really, really should join them._

_But the garden was so much better._

_So Tommy went into the garden._

_He began to look around. The flowers and bushes were comforting, intricately detailed. And paths, millions of them, led inward._

_Tommy didn't know how long he spent wandering those paths. They seemed to lead everywhere and nowhere, each flower a burst of meaning, every turn a new discovery. Days, weeks, months, hours..._

_Finally the path reached the center._

_There was a tree there. It was tall and strong, and Tommy knelt before it, then, urged by some internal whisper, lay down._

_He gently slipped into sleep._

_Waking seemed natural, as natural as anything in this garden, and Tommy yawned and crawled free of the tree, curious. What else was here? Why was _he_ here?_

_He turned and then saw the flowers._

_They lay where he slept. There were two, one white, the other black. The white one was beautiful and strong; the black one was thorny and small._

_Tommy knelt._

_Somewhere beyond him were the screams of his teammates and friends as his camp was slaughtered. Somewhere beyond him was the promise of healing._

_And the black flower waited._

_Kim screamed._

_It wasn't a turning point, Tommy would later realize. It was just a signal._

_He reached out and plucked the black flower._


	6. Scream

A\N: BWAHAHA! *ducks and prepares for mob wielding flaming torches*

* * *

Kim was dead.

Tommy knew that as soon as he woke up. He paused, frowning, staring at the interior of the van.

He felt like there was something he should be feeling now...

No.

There was nothing.

He shrugged and hefted himself up, looking around. Interesting van. He'd have to come back and look at it later. But for the moment, he wanted to know how Kim died.

So he climbed out.

They were in a forest. Fires were everywhere, in small random dots that lit the red night sky (and how Venjix achieved _that_ sky was anyone's guess, though Tommy had his money on lights reflecting from the clouds). Corpses, still dressed in the shreds of cloth that were the Waste's ragged clothing, littered the ground.

There had been a battle, Tommy guessed.

Some part of him wondered why.

The wind was kicking up. Tommy could feel it tugging at his hair as he wandered.

A young woman's body lay on the ground, broken, clearly tortured. It had hair matted with blood. Was it Kim? Tommy kicked it over.

No. Just Emily.

Tommy walked on, finding Allison dead, her hands still reaching for the enemy that had shot her. Brad lay over her, fallen as he had tried to shield her injured body.

Kim's bright pink shirt caught his eye.

Tommy walked over to her corpse and knelt.

He should feel something. It was like he'd forgotten. How...

Irritating.

He examined Kim with a detached calm, looking silently for the killing blow. And there it was; a blaster wound to her stomach. Her neck was snapped as well. The whiplash from the blaster's force must have killed her, and it was probably instant. Tommy saw the branch below her and shook his head. Impact cause the whiplash, or perhaps falling. There was a tree right above them, after all.

Her hand was frozen around a rifle of her own.

Tommy glanced around. She had been sniping. It was the only logical explanation. How would someone with one leg fight otherwise?

Which only begged the question of just who she'd been fighting.

He turned.

A man with long dark hair lay facedown in the dirt. He was wearing priest's robes. A Green Morpher, the Green Zeo Morpher, was strapped to his wrist.

Tommy turned him over.

Carlos stared blankly back.

Well, then.

Tommy sat down, and amidst the corpses of his wife and friend, began to think.

His plan to save Kim had been foolish. He understood that now. Her leg had been gone, and they would have been better off not trying to make such a dangerous journey when she was still at risk of infection.

It all came back to Venjix, when you thought about it.

Who had injured Kim? Venjix's arms and legs, the Grinders. Who had infected the world with viruses and poisons that humans couldn't survive? Venjix himself.

Who had killed the Rangers?

Venjix.

And worst, worst of all, who had killed Tommy's children? Who had taken the life of Tanya, his sweet daughter, and Dylan, his heir and pride?

Who had dared to violate Tommy's protection of them?

A grim smile crossed Tommy's face.

Venjix.

It all came back to Venjix.

Tommy could remember the old world. Hamburgers and hot dogs and baseball games and radio and TVs. A fast-food restaurant around every corner. Gas stations in the back of beyond that sold weird trinkets that stayed on your sofa for hours.

_Having_ a sofa.

That world wasn't gone. Tommy knew that. And so the only question was how to get it back.

So he sat and thought.

Time passed.

A soft whistle floated through the clearing. Tommy blinked. Who was that?

"You know," A female voice said smugly, "Most humans are smart enough to _run_ when there's a battlefield."

Tommy looked up.

It wasn't a woman. She was too young for that. But her purple catsuit, dark visor, braided hair, and above all the blaster protruding from her hand screamed 'villain'.

Tommy waited.

"Aren't you going to say something?" The teen asked.

_It all comes back to Venjix_. But that wasn't right. Why was he...

Oh.

Tommy stood, slowly.

The villain circled him, wary. "If you've got a gun," She warned, "This is the part where you either drop it or get shot."

Tommy tilted his head. "You work for Venjix."

Venjix, who had stolen the world.

"Yes." The teen tossed her head back, a proud look entering her face. "I am Tenaya 7, Venjix Human Infiltration AttackBot."

"You're a cyborg."

Tenaya fired. The pulse of plasma barely missed Tommy's head, leaving a burn mark on his cheek.

"I. Am. A. Robot." Tenaya hissed, stalking closer.

Venjix had stolen the world...

Tommy smiled.

It wasn't a nice smile. It was a predator's smile. Tenaya paused, feeling a flash of primal fear.

"You want to know for sure?" Tommy asked. "I can tell you. But you have to do something for me."

"And what's that?" Tenaya asked. She should shoot the man now.

"Give me the world back."

Tenaya, very slowly, raised an eyebrow.

"Venjix took the world." Tommy explained. "I'm going to take it back."

Tenaya considered.

Well, he was clearly crazy. On the other hand, Venjix _did_ need someone to test his new hybridization process on. And hey, she was bored fighting the Rangers on her own. Maybe Venjix would let her keep the crazy man for amusement.

She folded her blaster back into her hand with a thought.

"Okay."


	7. Crazy Train

A\N: Holy COW did this take a while to get back to...but enjoy nonetheless. :) BTW, Alex is still a recruit in this, hasn't shot Thomas, and hasn't graduated.

* * *

Alex sneaks off alone sometimes.

I follow.

She slips through the corridors, a tiny frail girl. I wonder why Amanda trains them so their muscles are lean. I'd make them bulk up, but then, Amanda's probably just bi.

I remember her hands, gentleness disguised as cruelty, and shudder. In a world of monsters, I may be bad, but I'm far from the worst.

And Alex will fight one of those worst.

My lips part in a smile.

Alex stops and glances around. I stay invisible. My genes are irrevocably altered, after all; just because I've passed on the White Power doesn't mean I've lost the knack of camouflage.

Then Alex turns to a wall.

What is she _doing_? I frown. Why is she...

The grate swings out.

My heart stops.

For a second, a horrible second, I think she will leave; then for another second I think, oh, god, a _way out_; and then something else takes over and I realize, with the cold, calculated part of me that's decided to not let go, that Alex won't leave and that this, this is perfect, because Alex is vulnerable here and I'm the nice, caring mentor who can _warn_ her about the dangers of life, while the _real_ monster just _has_ to be fought-

I stride forward.

Alex gasps as I appear out of nowhere, turning to scamper away. I reach out and catch her by the arm, pulling her back. She fights determinedly, with the silence of someone who's learned that, no matter what, you never, _ever_ scream.

I could say something to calm her down, but I just wait instead.

Finally, her eyes closed with terror, she relaxes, giving in. Good girl.

"Relax, Alex." I whisper. "I won't hurt you."

"What do you want?" She demands, so strong, so brave. So fragile-I think I could snap her in half. The power is intoxicating.

"Nothing." I let her go, standing up. "Yet."

She glares up at me. Oh, Alex. Your will is so powerful, sweetheart, but don't you see how useless it is to resist? I hate to stop myself from laughing. Even her body knows, curling away from me.

This power is so _good_.

"Bullshit." She snaps. "Everyone wants something."

I raise an eyebrow, impressed and amused. "Oh, I want something, sweetheart." I croon, reaching out to brush a strand of hair away from her face. She flinches, looking disgusted, and I snort, pulling away. "Relax, Alex, you're too young for me."

"So what do you want?" Alex repeats.

I raise an eyebrow. "Better question. What do _you_ want?"

Alex glares.

"Think about it, Alex." I whisper. "They took you. They kidnapped you. They made you serve them. You could be _free_ right now, you could be _happy_, you could have a _life_-"

"I want to serve my country!" Alex snaps.

I slam my hand into the wall next to her. Alex jumps.

"Amanda," I say as if nothing happened, "Has a _real_ talent for putting thoughts in your head."

Alex stares up at me.

The hard coldness in me softens. I crouch beside her. "Shh, Alex. Don't be scared. I'll help you. I promise. But if you want to get out, then you need more than just me."

"Wh...what's that?" Alex stammers.

I reach in her pocket and pull out the White Dino Gem.

"The last person to bear this," I whispered, "Was the White Ranger. Reefside feared him. He tore the city apart. But then he stopped." I stop and raise an eyebrow. "Can you guess why?"

Slowly, Alex shakes her head.

"_It wasn't what he wanted_." I stand, clutching my Gem. "Just like you, Alex. He didn't want to hurt people. And they _will_ ask you to hurt people, just like they asked him. They made him kill, torture, degrade people..." I laugh. "They'll ask you to rape someone, if that's what gets them power."

Alex flinches.

I turn.

"He chose, Alex." I say, stalking closer. "The White Ranger chose good. And now..."

I kneel and take her hand.

Very, very gently, I place the White Dino Gem in it.

"Now he passes on his power." I whisper, closing her fist. "A gift. From me to you, angel." I lift her hand and kiss it, remembering an old gesture of my father's, my _true_ father's.

And that's it.

Alex stares at me in awe and I _feel_ the click, _feel_ that now, Alex is all mine, and I can do whatever I please.

And for a moment, that's what I want.

I want to know everything. I want to take Alex and use her to get Conner and Ethan and Kira out, and then I want to take her with us and run across the country doing everything and nothing. I want to dive into her mind and warp this innocent, precious angel into something vicious and cruel, I want to feel the pride of blood on her hands and the thrill of control over someone so young.

But it takes time.

So instead I stand.

"You figure out what you want, Alex." I tell her. "Then find me. Tell me. And we'll make it happen."

And then I walk away.


	8. Across the Line

A\N: Unfortunately, as funny as crazy!Tommy is, I have to drag him back to sanity now. Sorry. :p

* * *

When the world ended, one might prefer to look at a flower.

But the Garage didn't have them.

Instead, Scott looked at his teammates.

Their faces were frozen in perfect masks. Dr. K's was blank, impassive as always, belying the storm raging beneath it; Summer, pure and perfect, was horrified; Dillon, always a mess of emotions, was stormy and unthinkingly enraged; Flynn was sorrowful and determined; the Boom Twins were just confused, the import of this lost on them (and, not for the first time, Scott felt a pang of sympathetic regret for what they had lost); and Ziggy was almost ready to babble in a desperate attempt to cover up his horror and lack of understanding.

Scott put his hand to his mouth.

The others, obeying the unthinking command, stayed silent. They were waiting. Scott knew that. They wanted him to lead them, to step up and say something.

Instead he walked away.

His feet led him to the workout room. A punching bag hung from the ceiling. Still silent, Scott reached back, his hand forming a fist.

The first strike woke something.

Scott slammed his fist into the bag like it was a personal grudge. He never bothered to wrap his hands when he worked out, but for a fleeting second, a thought wondered if he should have this time.

He ignored it.

Tommy Oliver, leader of the Earth Rangers, was a hybrid.

The truth rang through his head in a whirling lightning strike of pain, almost as bad as Tenaya's damn lightning (not that the other Rangers knew she had that power; he'd been the only one stupid enough to piss her off and cause her to actually _discover_ it,) against the numb silence of the rest of his psyche.

Tenaya.

Scott punched the bag even harder. His knuckles split open, but they were numb, and the blood trickling down only made the punching bag slippery. Tenaya had brought the hybrid here. She had shown him one of her million ways into the city, then let him loose.

"_FOR THE WORLD!_"

Tommy Oliver had been a madman. His battle cry was bizarre; his logic even more so.

_Scott caught the sword on his own, grunting with the effort. This man was strong. "What...do...you...want?" He growled._

_"I want the world back!" The man swung their swords out of the locked position by sheer strength, slicing down, the blade biting into Scott's shoulder before he could twirl away._

_"We can't _give_ you the world back!" Summer had shouted frantically._

_"No! You stole it! GIVE ME MY PLANET BACK!" He had leaped at Summer, only to be blocked by brave, stupid little Ziggy._

_Scott leaped up, but he was too late._

_The man didn't so much tackle Ziggy as simply fall on him. Ziggy, who may have been brave, was still far too small (Scott was fixing that _soon_, damnit), and collapsed._

_The man began pawing him._

_Dillon's yell of fury went unheeded. "Where is it?" The man shouted wildly. "WHERE IS THE WORLD?"_

_Ziggy had been terrified. All of them had._

_This man was crazy._

Scott became aware of a presence behind him.

Dillon. Only Dillon had that aura, dark and quiet, like a huge black cat that pranced and twirled in the spotlight until a threat made it the most efficient killer in the jungle. Scott sometimes wondered if he loved or hated the other man, but right now, he just couldn't care less.

Dr. K had told them this man was Tommy Oliver.

Scott had always thought the leader of the Earth Rangers was admirable. He had thought that, if the man had survived, he would have loved trading battle stories with him. He'd thought that...

That...

His hand stopped midair.

It was only centimeters from the bag.

He saw the hand, bloody and bruised. Saw his fingers unfold, still unstained from being in a fist for so long.

He felt his fingers touch the bag.

The dam broke. Scott fell to one knee, clinging to the bag, fighting back a scream of fury and pain.

Dillon's hands touched his shoulders.

"Scott." Damnit, how he wanted to ignore that voice. "Scott. This isn't your fault."

"He's a _Ranger_. We _protect_ Rangers." Scott managed, his voice a snarl through the maelstrom in his mind. "That's our _job_."

Dillon pulled Scott into his arms.

Scott shoved him violently away, rising to his feet and punching the bag again. This time Dillon sighed, caught his hands, and yanked them behind his back, ignoring Scott's struggles. "Dillon!" He shouted. "Damnit, Dillon, let _go_!"

Dillon heaved another annoyed sigh. "Much as I _love_ having you in my arms writhing and screaming my name, oh fearless dumbass," he snapped, "You're hurting yourself. And you don't _get_ to hurt yourself, because you told me the exact same damn thing when I did this last week. So shut up, stop kicking, and go find Summer and have her kiss your boo-boos."

Scott stopped struggling.

Damnit. The hybrid was right.

Fuck it all.

Dillon let go, realizing Scott was done attacking the punching bag. The other man squirmed free, adjusting his jacket before stomping off.

Dillon, smirking slightly, followed.

"You're doing this just to annoy me, aren't you." Scott asked dryly.

"Funny," Dillon remarked, his smirk not fading at all, "That's what I said last week, Princess."

"Flame off, dickhead, I might get the wrong idea." Scott said, falling far too easily into bantering with his teammate.

"Oh, _please_, Scott." Dillon said, pausing just inside the door of the training room (which Summer had co-opted as Medbay when any of them were sick, and ergo was where she was waiting to patch her team leader up). Dillon leaned forward, batting his eyelashes, and whispered, "We _both_ know what _you_ want."

"If you two are quite finished challenging each other to a game of gay chicken?"

Both men turned, looking automatically sheepish. Summer had a knack of doing that to them. She sighed, shaking her head as she walked over and took Scott's hands, dragging him off without a word to bandage them.

Dillon, being Dillon, couldn't resist waving in his most feminine way to Scott. "Bye-bye, sweetie." He cooed.

"Dillon, if you are fond of Ranger Red, you may want to read Twilight."

Flynn, who until this point had just been watching the antics from the doorway with a smoothie, sprayed said smoothie everywhere.

"What?" Dr. K asked, blinking innocently. "Ranger Green informed me that it was quite romantic."

The men in the training room all looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

Then the alarms went off.

They planned this, Scott thought irritably. Seriously. The alarms all got together, in the middle of the night, jumping down from the walls and counters they were planted in, and talked about exactly when to go off. _"Hey, what about two AM?"_ Alarm A12 might say. _"No, that's boring."_ Alarm B5 replied. _"Let's do it right when the Red Ranger is freaked out over a new hybrid!" "Yeah!"_ Alarm 12A would cheer. _"And I'll take the two AM time!"_ The spastic fire alarm added.

"Ahem."

Oh, right. Scott jumped out of his car alongside the smirking Dillon (hey...wait a minute...why wasn't he in his own car?), surveying the area. Grinders, grinders, Tenaya 7, Tommy Oliver The Lunatic. "Ready!" He shouted.

He just hoped Dr. K's new weapon worked.

"RPM! GET IN GEAR!"

The energy runoff vanished. Scott grinned like a lunatic. "Hey, doc-"

"I know! Fight!"

Scott got a punch right to his bad shoulder and winced. He was really out of it today. He made up for it by looking at Tommy Oliver, remembering his previous rage, and tearing off the head of Grinders. It was a handy move that Dillon had taught him. Kind of a shame Venjix had left failsafes in the Grinders so they could lose limbs safely, though.

After all, what was the fun of knowing how to rip limbs off when it was really just knowing the right way to twist?

But the Grinders ran out pretty quickly, leaving the Rangers facing Tenaya 7 and a rather psychotic Tommy Oliver. "Give. Me. The. World." Tommy growled, stalking closer.

Scott grinned. "Okay."

A pause ensued.

"Uh, Scott," Ziggy asked over the intercom, "I think I speak for the rest of the team when I ask what the fuck are you talking about?"

In reply, Scott held out his hand. "Oh, we found what he was looking for."

"_WHAT?_" The team chorused.

"Downmorphing now." Dr. K said, and Scott could nearly hear the glee in her own voice as the marble dropped into his hand. It was just a marble, but no need for anyone else to know that, especially Tommy, who was heading for it with a hungry gleam in his eye.

"What the _fuck_?" Tenaya asked.

Tommy reached the marble, but Scott yanked it away. "Ah ah ah." He said, holding up a finger.

Then he pulled out a squirt gun.

"...What. The. Fuck." This time, the voice was Dillon's.

Scott fired.

The energy runoff that Dr. K had gathered exploded from his weapon, melting it completely (well, they hadn't had a whole lot of time to make the thing, that was why the prototype was a squirt gun) and knocking Tommy out like a light.

Scott looked up. "Any questions?"

Tenaya stared for a long minute.

Then she just turned and walked away. Scott thought he could hear a muttered 'I give up' as well.

And then he'd won.

For a long moment, Scott was aware of the dignity of the moment, as well as his team staring at them. Then, to everyone's surprise, he jumped up and started doing a Happy Dance. The sprinkler, too. It was impressive.

He was interrupted by Dillon. God, that was annoying.

"Scott." Dillon asked, in that calm tone that typically meant 'what the _hell_, world?'. "What the hell was that?"

"Oh, I got Dr. K to help me with a new weapon when we couldn't sleep last night."

More stares.

"And you didn't tell us this because?" Flynn asked slowly.

"I didn't want to sound like an idiot."

Dillon glanced at the unconscious Tommy Oliver, then at Scott, who had just finished the sprinkler dance.

"Yeeeeah." Dillon said, clapping him on the back. "Well done."

Scott knew it was sarcasm. He just didn't care.


End file.
